


Blood of the Dauntless

by hajimetooru_ittetsu



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: BAMF Hange Zoe, BAMF levi, Female Hange Zoë, Gen, of Levi and Hanji being badass, this is basically an expedition fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26694568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hajimetooru_ittetsu/pseuds/hajimetooru_ittetsu
Summary: Year 845Before the Fall of Wall MariaNine months after Levi joins the Survey Corps, the scouts leave on another expedition outside the walls.
Relationships: Levi & Hange Zoë
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	Blood of the Dauntless

**Author's Note:**

> For the sake of the fic, let's just say Erwin was made Commander shortly before Wall Maria fell :)

_Year 845_  
_Before the Fall of Wall Maria_

Levi heaved an impatient sigh as he shifted on his horse, ignoring the whispers and murmurs of the crowd as the Survey Corps halted in front of the gate, prepared to leave on an expedition. _They always take their sweet, sweet time,_ Levi thought in annoyance. Snatches of the people's conversations reached his ears, most of them openly hostile and disapproving (not that it bothered him much), though some of them...

He had known that he was rapidly gaining a reputation among the scouts as an unstoppable Titan-killing machine—some had even begun whispering that he was humanity's strongest soldier—but to think that the rumours had finally reached the masses... he didn't exactly know how to feel about that. It was disconcerting how quickly he'd gone from being the dirty low-born thug of the Underground to the Survey Corps's best elite supersoldier. The same people who had once scoffed at him and looked down on his existence now turned admiring doe-eyed gazes at him and worshipped the very ground he walked on. 

It pissed the hell out of him.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the restless fidgeting of the person seated beside him. He turned to look at her—and narrowed his eyes. Hanji had a worryingly huge grin on her face and an almost manic glint in her eyes—a glint that only meant trouble.

"Oi, shitty glasses." Hanji turned to him questioningly. "Whatever you're thinking of doing, you better not do it."

Hanji grinned at him, trying and failing to look innocent. "I don't know what you're talking about, Levi."

Levi shook his head at her and returned his attention to the front when the gate of Shiganshina District gave a heavy grating noise, slowly beginning to open with a groan. He ignored Hanji's excited squeal and readied the reins of his horse.

The moment Erwin called out the order to advance, Levi dug his heels into his horse's flank and spurred it into a gallop as the Survey Corps departed on yet another expedition outside the safety of the walls.  
  


* * *

  
A black flare cut through the sky from the direction of the right flank.

"Black flare spotted from the right flank!" yelled out their team leader Nikolas, yanking at the reins of his steed. He pulled out his flare gun and fired off another black flare into the air, passing on the message.

The squad continued on across the fields in trepidation, their horses' hooves beating a steady rhythm on the grass. Had the right flank come across an Abnormal? Had they all been wiped out? Were they going to have to fight some Titans?

The apprehensive calm of the moment was suddenly shattered when the ground gave an almighty shudder, nearly throwing the riders off their horses.

"Titans!" one of the new recruits shrieked, pointing at the distant treeline.

Four 15-meter Titans were fast approaching, lumbering gracelessly across the plains like oversized children, shaking the very earth with every footstep they took. The first Titan was blond with eyes lolling out of its head, arms swinging around madly at its sides like a yoyo. The second was dark-haired, with massive bulbous eyes. It was cradling its bloated stomach in its arms, staggering around almost blindly. The third was skittering around on all fours, moving erratically to and fro with its tongue flopping out of its mouth. The last one was a tall and skinny Titan with an unsettling grin stretched across its hideous face, strands of stringy dark hair falling into its eyes.

The moment the Titans laid eyes on the squad of scouts, they suddenly broke into a frenzied run, shrieking and growling like starved animals, each footfall like a mini earthquake.

"You've got to be kidding me! _Four_ Abnormals?!" Nikolas shouted, looking extremely nervous. He gritted his teeth in determination. "We're taking them down!"

Levi urged his horse into a gallop, distantly aware of Hanji riding beside him, grinning like a loon. He had half a mind to remind her not to do anything stupid, but he figured it would fall on deaf ears anyway. He observed the four Titans heading their way.

Four Abnormals. They'd be a problem. Abnormals were known to behave in an unusual and unpredictable manner, which made them extremely dangerous, so they’d have to be careful. There weren't any trees or buildings around, just empty fields and a small river close by, so they'd have to use their 3DMG on the Titans themselves. They couldn't exactly retreat and allow the Abnormals to break through to the centre of the formation either, so they had no choice but to fight them. 

What a hassle.

As soon as they came within striking distance, Levi sprung off his horse and fired off the hooks of his gear at the blond Titan's shoulder, unsheathing his blades. The Titan reached for him with startling speed, but Levi was faster. He met its attack head on, slicing a vicious trail up its arm and slashing out its eyes. The Titan howled as blood erupted up its arm, the skin torn up by long gashes, its fingers severed at the knuckles. Levi spun downwards in an arc, retracting his hooks from the Titan's shoulder and latching onto the Titan's nape instead, coming down at its exposed neck with extraordinary speed and slicing cleanly through its nape. 

The Titan toppled over with a resounding crash, but Levi was already moving on to help his fellow squadmates. Hanji and one of the new recruits were holding their own against the Titan with the swollen abdomen. His team leader was engaging the crawler Titan with the other two new recruits, one of whom was struggling in the Titan's crushing hold. Levi immediately shot his hooks to the back of the Titan's hand and propelled himself forwards, deftly slicing off the fingers gripping the scout with his signature spinning attack. The scout tumbled out of the Titan's grasp, screaming in terror as she freefell through the air. Levi dove forward and managed to catch her around the waist right before she hit the ground.

"Stay back!" he commanded after he set her down safely. 

Meanwhile, Nikolas and the other scout had used the momentary distraction to launch a slew of attacks on the crawler Titan, but they couldn't seem to get close enough to cut its nape as they were forced to constantly dodge the Titan's snapping jaws. Nikolas jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding the Titan's teeth by twisting his body at the last second, but the other scout wasn't so lucky. The Titan's gigantic teeth crunched down on the scout's body, tearing through skin and bone as easily as if they were butter, the man's blood painting its teeth crimson. The scout let out a bloodcurdling howl of pain as the remaining upper half of his body plummeted down to the earth, trailing splashes of red in its wake. He hit the ground headfirst with a sickening crunch. Blood stained the earth around his mangled body.

"Shit!" Nikolas cursed, landing on the middle of the Titan's back, which he deemed safe enough for the time being seeing as the crawler Titan wouldn't be able to use its limbs to pull him off. He gripped his blades tightly, eyes wide with fear and anger. “Dammit!”

Levi grappled back towards the crawler Titan, reentering the fray. Aiming for the back of its knees, his blades shredded through muscle and tendons, successfully crippling its legs. The crawler Titan collapsed onto the ground with an earthshaking crash, throwing Nikolas off as if he were a mere rag doll. Levi wasted no time in swinging upwards and dealing the killing blow, his blades tearing through the Titan's nape like paper. The Titan's hand fell limp to the ground from where it had been reaching for Nikolas.

Levi turned to assess Hanji's situation. The first thing he noticed was that she had already taken down the first Titan she had been fighting against. The second thing he noticed was the dismembered head of the scout Hanji had been fighting with lying on the blood-speckled grass, the rest of his body strewn a few metres away. Hanji herself was now flying around the head of the last Titan: the grinning Abnormal.

* * *

  
"Hey there! Nice to meet you!" Hanji called out as the grinning Titan savagely brought its hand down on her. She lurched to the side with ease and laughed. "Ooooh, that was a close one! Nice try!"

She flew close again, her hooks sinking into the Titan's shoulder and hoisting her up into the air. "Mind if I take a closer look at you? Oh, I wonder if you Titans have earwax in your ears like us! Can I—oh!" She nimbly dodged as the Titan lifted an enormous hand to swat her away. "Guess you didn't like that, huh?" she said, grinning up at the Titan. "Sorry!"

Hanji suddenly felt her gear give a little splutter. She frowned. The gas was almost finished already? She must have used up more than she thought she had, fighting that other Titan. Fine then. Time to finish this. 

She moved closer to the Titan once more, changing directions midair when the Titan stretched out a hand to grab her, only to realize her mistake too late. 

The reason Abnormals were extremely dangerous, aside from their unpredictability, was because of their uncanny speed. She was reminded of this fact when she suddenly felt a shift in the air. Her blood ran cold. 

The next thing she knew, she was staring into the gaping maw of a Titan, at the globs of pearly saliva dripping down from the roof of its mouth and the rows and rows of gigantic rotting teeth stained red from the blood of its previous meals. She had the sudden brief thought that Levi would be absolutely disgusted by what she was seeing and steeled herself. She knew she wouldn't be able to get away with her gas supply pretty much depleted, she had already lost too much momentum from the change in direction she pulled earlier. She readied the blades in her hands. Even if she was going to die, she would not go down without a fight. 

_At least I'll be able to see the inside of a Titan's sto—_

In the last possible second, something—or some _one_ —barrelled into her from her left side and slammed her out of the Titan's way. Hanji was roughly shoved to the side, the wind knocked out of her as gravity mercilessly took hold. Her entire body was jerked to a jarring stop as the wires connected to the hooks—still buried in the Titan's shoulder—snapped to their full lengths, keeping her suspended in the air. She glanced up from her position hanging by the Titan's thigh just in time to see her saviour— _Levi,_ her mind registered—get swallowed whole, the momentum from crashing into her sending him plunging straight into the Titan's still open mouth. 

She didn't realize that she was screaming his name. All she felt was the once-familiar burning sensation of rage—so rare nowadays that it had almost been forgotten—flooding her entire being with boiling hatred and staining her vision red. 

She gritted her teeth and gripped her blades tighter. Levi had sacrificed himself to save her life, the least she could do now was to kill the Titan. She didn't care that her gas was drained, she didn't care that she couldn't use her gear, she was going to tear this fucking Titan to pieces. 

She viciously drove one of her blades into the Titan's flesh, ignoring the warm spurt of blood onto her face, and did the same with her other blade, using them to slowly haul herself up its body, leaving a trail of deep lacerations behind her in the Titan's flesh. The Titan, strangely, hardly seemed to notice her bloody painstaking journey up its body, apparently preoccupied with something else, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She had just reached the middle of its abdomen when movement at the back of the Titan's neck suddenly caught her eye. 

Hanji watched in shock and amazement as the back of the Titan's neck seemingly tore itself open, a long clean slice suddenly materializing and shredding its nape apart.

_How…?_

She was forced to take her eyes off the nape when the Titan began to fall. Her legs kicked off its abdomen and she plummeted to the ground for a heart-stopping moment before she was unceremoniously flung like a pendulum into an upward swing by the jerk of her cables, the hooks still embedded in the Titan's shoulder. The moment she was thrust into the air, she retracted her hooks from the Titan's shoulder so that she wouldn't be pulled down by the collapsing Titan. The Titan crashed onto the ground, sending up plumes of dirt and causing a violent tremor to shake the earth. Hanji hurtled through the air, gravity finally taking hold, and slammed into the Titan's corpse, hard. Black spots danced in her vision as she hissed in pain, lying there on the Titan's steaming body. Her back was on fire, and it wasn't only because of the contact with the Titan's burning skin. Excruciating claws of agony ruthlessly tore through her entire body as she tried to pick herself up, involuntary grunts of pain escaping her lips.

All of a sudden, she felt a movement in the air. She stilled, heart pounding in her chest. She was in no condition to fight again, and she didn't know what had become of the rest of the squad aside from Levi. 

_Levi..._

She shook her head harshly in an attempt to dispel the thought. _Not now,_ she scolded herself. _You can think about it later. Right now…_

She raised her blades, her blistered fingers trembling slightly from the effort. She had to first determine if there was a new danger. She shifted forward carefully, ignoring the scorching kiss of hot air against her skin, trying to see past the billowing plumes of thick steam blocking her view. She continued forward cautiously, boots treading lightly on the Titan's fallen corpse, unsure of what to expect. She could now make out a small figure through the curtain of steam, not too far away from her. The figure stirred. She tensed, muscles taut in anticipation of an attack, when she suddenly heard a small wet cough.

A very human cough.

Hanji darted forward, ignoring the twinge of pain from her sudden movement, and moved as quickly as she could towards the figure. She could hardly dare to hope, and yet… if there was the possibility that _he_ had survived…

She stumbled through the searing heat of the steam, blindly looking for the figure she had glimpsed, and finally laid eyes upon—

“LEVI!”

Rising out of the Titan’s carcass in a burst of hot steam, dripping from head to toe with Titan blood and saliva, was Levi. Her stupid friend who had gotten himself killed saving her life. Or so she had thought.

Hanji launched herself at him without a second thought, sending the both of them toppling over with a crash.

“Fuck,” Levi hissed. “Oi, shitty glasses, get the fuck off me,” he grunted under her weight, trying in vain to push her off, but she held fast, ignoring the throbbing pain in her body, pouring all of the grief she had felt for the brief moment she had thought him dead into the hug and therefore squeezing the life out of him.

“Dammit, four-eyes,” Levi rasped from under her, apparently having given up on escaping. “You’re too reckless.”

“Sorry,” Hanji mumbled into his shoulder, too relieved to say anything else. 

Two pairs of feet landed beside her and she jumped, turning around to see their team leader and the surviving new recruit staring down at them, looking a little shell-shocked. “Levi?” Nikolas said, mouth hanging agape. “Did you just kill a Titan from _inside its mouth?!”_

Hanji’s eyes widened and she whipped her head back to stare at Levi. “You did?!”

Levi rolled his eyes and got to his feet. “Yes, I did. Have you gone blind, shitty glasses?”

Hanji thought back to the long gash that had torn into the Titan’s nape seemingly out of nowhere. Of course! That must have been Levi’s work. He must have sliced its nape from the inside. “How did you do it?” Hanji demanded, her eyes sparkling.

“I got swallowed whole, so I just cut open its nape from inside its mouth,” Levi said, shrugging as if it wasn’t a big deal. “More importantly, four-eyes,” he continued, giving her a once-over, mouth curling in distaste at the rapidly vaporizing blood spattered across her glasses and face, “you look fucking disgusting.”

Hanji snorted. “You should take a look at yourself, short stack.”

Levi narrowed his eyes at her. His face contorted into one of absolute revulsion and disgust when he finally glanced down at himself. “Fuck,” he hissed, recoiling. While the Titan blood had already started dissipating from his clothes and skin, Levi’s uniform was completely slimed up with Titan saliva, clumps of the pearly substance coagulating on his skin and hair. In the nine whole months of knowing him, Hanji had never once seen him in such a messy state. Or with such a livid expression on his face. He looked like he was ready to start mutilating the Titan’s corpse and massacring its entire species, which would probably actually work out in their favour. Hanji briefly entertained the thought of letting a feral Levi loose on the Titans. 

“Hell no, I’m not riding like this. Fuck no,” Levi snarled, looking like he was about to start tearing off his own skin to get the saliva and dirt off himself. He leapt down from the Titan’s disintegrating corpse and stormed off in the direction of the nearby river they had seen while they had been riding.

“Wait, Levi,” Hanji called, hurrying down after him and wincing when the movement jarred her scraped-up back and most likely broken ribs, “you can’t jump into the river. You’ll get sick if you ride while you’re soaked!”

“Fuck off. I’d rather get ripped limb from limb than spend one more second with this damn saliva clinging onto me,” Levi snapped, removing his gear, jacket and cloak before stepping into the rushing river. Hanji watched as he began frantically scrubbing his scalp and skin raw and then continued washing the rest of his uniform as well as he could while still wearing it. 

She exchanged glances with Nikolas, who sighed. He seemed to realize that he couldn’t stop Levi anyway, so he simply said, “We really can’t afford to stay long, so hurry up Levi.” He eyed the both of them with concern. “Are either of you injured?”

Hanji winced and nodded. “I’ve got second-degree burns from the steam and I think I broke some bones and scraped up my back pretty bad from the fall.” 

“I’m not injured,” Levi said despite the obvious mild burns on his skin, not looking up from his work of rinsing his cloak in the water.

Nikolas offered to patch up Hanji’s injuries while the other scout watched openmouthed as one of the Survey Corps’s elite soldiers sat in a river and cleaned Titan drool off himself. Hanji suspected that after seeing him in action, observing this new strange side of him was very confusing for her. She could definitely relate.

Levi finally emerged from the river after a while, dripping wet and drenched to the bone, having washed himself off to the best of his abilities. He still didn’t look satisfied, but at least he didn’t look like he was about to commit murder anymore. He shook his wet hair out of his eyes and gently wrung out both his cloak and jacket, careful not to twist them too much lest they get creased. With that done, he put his jacket and cloak back on and began buckling on his gear.

“Let’s get going,” Nikolas said, getting to his feet after he had wrapped Hanji’s ribs. “We’ll lose sight of the rest of the corps if we don’t go now.” He helped Hanji stand up, restock on her gas and mount her horse before mounting his own. Hanji turned to see Levi’s horse give a whinny at the added weight of his waterlogged clothes. Levi frowned at it.

Hanji steered her horse towards Levi, wincing a little as the movement jostled her injuries. “Hey, Levi. Thanks for the save.”

Levi looked away, avoiding her eyes. “Tch. Be more careful next time, shitty glasses.”

“Of course! But Levi,”—Hanji’s mouth tightened—“don’t you dare scare me like that ever again, you hear me?”

Levi glanced at her in slight confusion. “I scared you?”

“Of course you did! You were eaten by a Titan right in front of my very eyes, how could I not have been scared?” Hanji exclaimed indignantly. She breathed out a sigh. “But, I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Hmpf, of course I am,” Levi grumbled, turning his face away from her. Hanji grinned in victory. 

“Green flares spotted!” Nikolas yelled out from the front, pointing at the green streaks painting the rose-coloured sky. “We’re headed in that direction!”

“Yes, sir!” the three remaining squad members chorused, turning their horses as one in the direction of the flares.  
  


* * *

Erwin let out a long sigh as he leaned back in his chair. He was exhausted. The Survey Corps had just returned from their expedition and the casualties, though considerably lower than before, had been a lot higher than he would have liked. 

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the papers in front of him. Expeditions had always taken a toll on him, more so now that he was the new commander of the Survey Corps. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done something other than hole himself up in his office after an expedition and try to take his mind off everything by dealing with his paperwork.

He picked up the paper at the top of the pile and began reading through it carefully. It was a report from Nikolas-hanchou, the team leader he had assigned Levi to, regarding the expedition. All surviving squad leaders and team leaders were required to send in a report to him regarding the expedition, mostly to easily account for casualties and kill counts.

Interest piqued, Erwin quickly scanned through the document. He had been meaning to check up on Levi’s performance in this expedition since he couldn’t observe him himself anymore, seeing as he was now the new Commander and had to stay in the command centre. He had high expectations of the man and he hadn’t once been proven wrong.

Erwin felt his eyebrows raise in disbelief at the contents of the report. 11 solo kills, 5 of which were Abnormals. Impressive. The fact that he had managed to kill 11 Titans despite the point of the new formation being to avoid encountering them was an admirable feat in itself. 

Ah, Hanji had done well too. 8 solo kills, 3 Abnormals. It seemed that the Survey Corps had some truly remarkable soldiers in its ranks. He would have to utilize them properly, and maybe think about giving them promotions.

But wait, what’s this? Erwin blinked, then reread Nikolas’ notes just in case he hadn’t read it right. 

_We encountered 4 Abnormals. Levi quickly disposed of the first two and Hanji Zoe took down the third. However, the fourth Titan was able to catch her off guard. Levi saved her and was swallowed whole by the Titan as a result. Hanji Zoe attempted to climb the Titan with her blades due to the depletion of her gas supply. Levi killed the Titan from inside its mouth.  
_ _We suffered two casualties, those of Cadet Leon Schmidt and Cadet Adrean Fischer._

Erwin was torn between being awestruck and horrified. Hanji tried to _climb_ the Titan _without_ her 3DMG?! Levi _killed_ a Titan from _inside its mouth?!_

He heaved a sigh, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, placing the paper back onto his desk. 

He did not want to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Hanchou = team leader


End file.
